Charlie Brooker has been on something of a roll for a while with his satirical take on the TV formats in both previous hits such as Dead Set and last year's Black Mirror (a second series due for 2013) and with A Touch Of Cloth, he didn't hold back when it came to highlighting the sheer silliness that most cop shows seem to have nowadays and this opening two-parter (the first of a planned trilogy with Brooker and co-writer, Daniel Maier) certainly delivered.
John Hannah and Suranne Jones, both known for their history of appearing in police shows themselves made for a fun duo of maverick cop, Jack Cloth and bisexual partner, Anne Oldman (pronounced Old Man) as the pair cope with their partners dying/leaving them, their not remotely subtle UST as well as a blind justic killer bumping off jurors and no, I'm not going to spoil who the killer is but within five minutes of watching the first episode, you'll figure it out without much effort.
The two-parter moved a breathless pace with plenty of easy jokes and a few less obvious ones and while it might not be as subversive as some of Brooker's previous efforts, A Touch Of Cloth is never boring. Hannah and Jones are particularly excellent with one another and some of the dialogue is genuinely funny in it's delivering ("I haven't laughed since my wife died", "bi, jack" "It's Old Man"/"Whatever" for example) and there's a great supporting cast with Daisy Beaumont as an innuendo laced pathologist, Julian Rhind-Tutt as a grouchy boss and even Todd Carty gloriously sending up himself as well. Definitely worth giving a watch to and for Doctor Who fans, you can also expect to see Karen Gillan in one of the stories due for transmission next year, if you need an extra incentive to watch it.
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